With the ‘draft’ version of the SCOTUS decision on Roe v. Wade leaked on Politico, we are thinking through the potential ramifications. Will Kentucky’s ‘Trigger Law’, established in 2019 through HB148, be set off in the very near future to ban all abortions? WHOA! We do not yet know whether the Roe ‘draft’ ruling will be the final one.

The Abortion issue has become knotty, and the KY laws regulating it reflect a circuitous landscape. In fact, the many Amicus briefs submitted to urge the high court to reverse Roe in the Dobbs case, cite hundreds of cases that conflict because of varying interpretations of Roe in state and federal courts.

The section of the Kentucky Revised Statutes that was revised to include HB148 states that KY will ban all abortions, medical and surgical, should Roe v Wade be reversed, or should another constitutional amendment be passed. If this occurs, we will say, “It’s Springtime in the Commonwealth!”

This triggering effect ideally would eliminate the need for the current HB3 regulations. However, there was a stipulation in the 2019 law that its ban of abortions would be effective “relative to the appropriation of Medicaid funds.” If the President should issue an executive order or the Congress pass a statute that would require a state to fund abortion in “limited circumstances” to remain eligible to receive federal Medicaid funds, then the bullet would be deflected in some instances, to the best of our understanding.

We cannot know what the new landscape will look like, especially at the rate the Biden administration issues new orders. We do know that adding the Yes-for-Life Amendment to Kentucky’s Constitution will be needed. It states: To protect human life, nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion. This amendment PREVENTS a misinterpretation of existing law, as the Roe decision effected in the US Constitution. Please keep this in mind when you go to the polls in the fall and help spread the word!

Meanwhile, our pro-life Attorney General Cameron is defending HB3, and the Monday, May 2, hearing ended in Judge Jenning’s statement that she would issue a ruling of a partial injunction very soon. Both sides agreed that certain of the Humanity in Healthcare Act’s stipulations can be immediately enforced.

Following the Judge’s Order, both sides agreed to extend the amount of time for answers or responsive pleadings. The State will have until June 2nd to file an answer and the Plaintiffs— Planned Parenthood, EMW and the ACLU, will then have until June 23rd to respond.

As you can note from the photos, opposition to HB3 was vociferous with a powerful bullhorn, but our pro-life supporters brought a peaceful witness for Life. I am so proud of all pro-lifers for your steady, loving, persistent, effective work to put an end to Roe v Wade and abortion. I am very close to saying, “Congratulations, you have won!” But we await the orderly application of American law.

Watch the video of the news conference that followed the court hearing here.

Judge Denies Request from AG to enforce HB3

"Though final passage was granted more than a month ago, Kentucky’s newest law further restricting and regulating abortion access has yet to take full effect. Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings issued a preliminary injunction on May 19 blocking the state from enforcing most of House Bill 3…

"Last week, Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s office appealed the preliminary injunction to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and asked Jennings to allow his office to enforce provisions of the law in the meantime…

"Jennings on Thursday denied Cameron’s request. With the injunction in place, access to abortion in Kentucky is largely as it was before House Bill 3 was passed into law.

… Cameron has rebuked legal challenges to the new law, arguing that compliance is possible even if the mechanisms for compliance don’t exist. …"

Read more.

Judge Sets HB3 Hearing for Monday, May 2, 2022

EMW Clinic joins Planned Parenthood HB3 suit; case goes to court next week. Watch for more news.

About the Temporary Restraining Order for HB3

“We are disappointed in the April 21^st decision by U.S. District Judge Jennings to enjoin in its entirety House Bill 3, the Humanity in Healthcare Act. While we are frustrated by the ruling, Kentucky Right to Life is in consultation with counsel, our members, and Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in next steps to appeal the temporary injunction.

“From the beginning, we have acknowledged that House Bill 3 would not end abortion in Kentucky. HB 3 is a multifaceted bill that reflects our continued commitment to Kentucky’s most vulnerable citizens, the unborn, as well as advocating for justice and safe medical practices for their Mothers.” - Addia Wuchner

“We are disappointed that the court chose to temporarily halt enforcement of the entire law. This law is constitutional, and we look forward to continuing to defend it.” - Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron

“I am disappointed with US District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings’ temporary restraining order of HB 3, Humanity In Healthcare, allowing for chemical abortions to be used by any female, regardless of her age, who has a credit card that will cover the expense.

“Her decision, along with the FDA’s announcement in December 2021 that allows for the abortion-inducing kit to be available via mail order without a doctor visit, in essence turns every bathroom in the Commonwealth of Kentucky into an abortion clinic. It is a sad day for the weakest among us – the baby in the womb.” - Representative Nancy Tate, primary sponsor of HB 3

House Bill 3, the Humanity in Healthcare Act— our ‘6 ProLife Bills in 1,’ has passed, and Secretary of State Adams will sign it into law. The Secretary of State signs all bills into law when they have required an override of a Governor’s veto.

Thank you to everyone for your prayers this Session and your calls to Frankfort. Kentucky Right to Life is honored to serve as your voice in Frankfort, working with our House and Senate on prolife legislation.

House Bill 3 is the result of over a year’s work! We want to thank the entire Kentucky ProLife Caucus, and especially Representatives Tate (shown in the Rotunda), King, Prunty and Bechler in the House along with Senator Max Wise for his work on SB 321 and the 15-week abortion restriction, and Senator Alvarado.

A special thank you to KRTL members and friends for your calls this week asking your Legislators to vote “YES” to override the Governor’s veto on HB3!

It has been a long session and your legislators have worked extremely hard. When the final vote is cast and the gavel falls declaring Sine Die later today, the 2022 Legislative Session will be a wrap.

I have a favor to ask: Please take a moment to call Frankfort one more time, just to say, Thank you for the voting to override the HB3 veto! Please call the Legislative Message Line at 1-800-372-7181.

Angry winds

As tornadic winds ripped across Kentucky last night, the anger from the pro-abortion advocates was also intensifying. The ACLU, EMW and Planned Parenthood all will challenge this legislation in court. They have raised truckloads of money to defeat HB3.

Kentucky is a battleground state. To quote from today's Courier-Journal, "Final passage of HB 3 makes Kentucky the first state to end all access to abortion..." Read More.

We take pride in that, however, we know that it makes our opponents even more determined to defeat our powerful legislation.

The VETO Override Senate voting history is shown in the picture above and the House vote is on this page. The asterisk indicates the Senator is a Republican. Also shown is a screenshot from the New York Times that reminds why we are fighting so hard.

Did you know?

House Bill 3 updates the sections of Kentucky law impacted by Judicial ByPass (Federal Law provisions since 1979) making clear that the Court must consider all information, including whether the minor child is a victim of sexual abuse by one or both of her parents, or another individual. This speaks to the issues of rape and incest.

HB3 will not end abortion in Kentucky, but restricts it to 15 weeks and bans mail-order abortions. This Bill reflects the General Assembly’s commitment to Kentucky’s most vulnerable citizens. It shows the legislators' dedication in advocating for justice and safe healthcare practices for unborn children and their mothers.

"The scramble late Wednesday to try to block the law was similar to that of 2019, when lawmakers passed a bill to ban abortions after six weeks and then-Gov. Matt Bevin, an anti-abortion Republican, signed it into law the same day.

"That forced EMW, then the state's only abortion provider, to cancel appointments and suspend abortions for a day until the law was blocked by a federal judge. That law remains suspended while the legal challenge is pending." (ibid, C-J)

We know a fight is imminent, but for today, let’s focus on thanking our legislators and celebrating the HB3 victory in the State House!

Washington Update: This week Kentucky RTL Executive Director Addia Wuchner joined forces and signed a Collaborative Document, opposing the appointment of Dr. Robert Califf as FDA Commissioner. Sorry to say, his nomination moved forward in a close bipartisan vote on Jan. 14. The following excerpt from an article by Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, details our opposition to this latest Biden administration nominee to an agency of the U.S.

Today, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP) is set to vote on President Biden’s nominee for Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Robert Califf. Califf is a self-proclaimed ardent believer in data and a renowned figure in biomedical science. The average American would logically assume that such a person could be entrusted to protect the health and safety of our nation. The problem is, Califf, who previously served as FDA commissioner under President Obama from February 2016 to January 2017, has a troubling record of corrupting data to prioritize partisan interests over the health and safety of vulnerable women when it comes to abortion.

Until 2016, the REMS (Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies) for chemical abortion required the reporting of severe, life-threatening, and fatal adverse events. Under Califf’s esteemed leadership and direction, this requirement was altered so that only deaths be reported. Following this decision, 75 members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter highlighting concerns and requesting comprehensive metrics on the dangers of the abortion pill, mifepristone. Califf never responded…

Although the FDA’s job is to ensure the efficacy of drugs for all Americans, its safety claims lack any semblance of credibility, as the agency ignores flawed data and fails to strengthen weak reporting requirements. A report published earlier this year on the FDA’s data on deaths and injuries related to the chemical abortion pill, found incomplete data including 500 “uncodable” events. Complete gaps in critical health information are unacceptable, especially for a federal entity trusted with oversight of our “health and safety.” Califf perpetuated this issue during his first stint atop the FDA, and we should not blindly grant him another term.

Many Senators seemingly turned a blind eye during his confirmation hearings last month, as Califf garnered “bipartisan” support from members of the committee. When the topic of chemical abortion was raised, Califf promised the committee that the agency’s decisions would always be grounded in the latest and greatest data.…

All of this does not even consider Califf’s ties to pharma. After leaving his first term as FDA Commissioner in 2017, Califf went to work as a consultant and board member for numerous health industry companies such as Cytokinetics, Bitterroot Bio, Centessa Pharmaceuticals, and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals. He possesses millions of dollars’ worth of pharmaceutical company stocks…

Read more.

NO SURPRISES HERE! On Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made “permanent” its April 2021 Covid Pandemic lifting of medical restrictions on RU486 ALLOWING ABORTION PILLS BY MAIL! While we anticipated the FDA’s further expansion of this dangerous Death by Mail distribution of the RU486 chemical abortion protocol, it only affirms the abortion lobby’s disregard for human life. This reaffirms what ProLife advocates have continued to say - that their anti-Iife agenda is also anti-women’s health and safety!

The FDA order removes the longstanding required in-person medical provider protocol for women seeking a chemical abortion (medical-nonsurgical termination of her pregnancy). Thursday’s decision by the FDA allows the combination abortion pills protocol - mifepristone and misoprostol, to be distributed by mail. (During the Covid 19 Pandemic, the FDA had temporarily lifted the in-person medical protocol requirement on mifepristone, the first of the two-drug protocol required to end a pregnancy).

“Sadly, we were anticipating this tragic weakening of Federal safety regulations and further disregard for the health of young girls and women,” said Kentucky Right to Life Executive Director, Addia Wuchner. “Kentucky Right to Life has been conferring for over a year with other prolife groups and medical professionals on this matter. Long before the pandemic, we were acutely aware of this extended overexpansion by the abortion and anti-life lobby and their promotion of dangerous DO-IT-YOURSELF abortions. They view chemical abortion as the future of their industry, as it is cost-effective for them and more difficult to regulate.”

On Wednesday of this week, Addia, Kentucky State Representative Nancy Tate and Dr. Ingrid Skop presented legislation for the upcoming Legislative Session before the Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare. The Humanity in Healthcare Act is multi-provisional legislation prepared for the 2022 General Assembly Session.

An entire section of the bill contains language that would ban mail-order abortions in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The proposed bill requires standardized practice for distribution of this two-pill abortion protocol which includes an in-person meeting with the medical provider, an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy and gestational age, lab work such as testing for RH factor and STD screening, along with information on medical risks for example infection or bleeding, what to expect after taking the medication, when to seek emergency treatment if necessary, and requires a 14-day follow-up visit with her medical provider. It also reaffirms that the women be provided information on abortion bill reversal, currently required by Kentucky law.

In recent months, we have presented an overview of the Humanity in Healthcare Act 2022 before two interim legislative committee hearings and on KET Kentucky Tonight.

Kentucky Right to Life is the oldest statewide ProLife organization serving and advocating for the protection of the unborn child and the most vulnerable in our midst. We are unwaveringly ProWoman and ProWomen’s Health and while we DO NOT advocate or promote abortion. We will not stand silently in the face of risky healthcare measures that hold little regard for the current or future health of Kentucky’s young girls and women.

Presentations by Rep. Nancy Tate and KRTL's Addia Wuchner were made before the Ky Interim Joint Committee on Health, Welfare & Family Services Hearing on Dec. 15. ObGyn Dr. Ingrid Skop joined the presentation virtually. Those opposed to the Bill also had opportunity to speak. Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and UofL were represented at the hearing. Learn more.

It is interesting that the ACLU sued its buddy, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, to overturn the FDA regulation on the Abortion Pill that called for in-person physician oversight.

Was Becerra really opposed to this so that he needed to be taken to court?

As a team, the ACLU, the American College of ObGyns, and various other attorneys work together to achieve pro-abortion goals. If they need an Amicus brief, they round up their fellow Medical Associations and other pals, including the

• American Medical Association,
• American Academy of Family Physicians,
• American Society for Reproduce time Medicine,
• National Abortion Federation,
• North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology,
• National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health,
• Planned Parenthood,
• Reproductive Health Access Project—

Well, just see the full list here.

As you can tell, there is a team at work to undermine the law concerning when, where, how and by whom the Abortion Pill can be supplied.

The team includes expert witnesses who may identify as anonymous providers. And their testimonies are remarkably similar.

So, while it may appear as though the FDA simply agreed to new rules as a way of helping women during the Covid-19 environment, there is an army behind the effort to change the rules, and for us to think the old rule will apply at some future date is wishful thinking.

So now, what happens to Ky’s laws against distributing Abortion Pills by mail, by webcam, using federal funds, and always reporting any complications? How can our law be enforced that requires women to be advised upon receiving the Abortion Pill that it can be reversed?

Will the federal rulings dismantle Ky’s hard-won pro-life law victories?

We won’t take such change ‘sitting down’! KyRTL is on the move. Our executive director Addia Wuchner with our pro-life partners will work to maintain safety standards for women seeking abortions. Please join our effort by donating to KyRTL. Watch for more details!

Pushing the envelope or pushing the coat hanger?

SPECIAL for ObGyn Physicians

Reprinted by permission of AAPLOG, American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

When we think of someone who sells drugs to a buyer, knowing that drug will result in an ER visit for nearly one out of 20 buyers and surgery for almost that many, we generally think of illegal drug dealers. Think again. The new drug dealers are pushing do-it-yourself abortion with Mifeprex and Misoprostol. Why?

The abortion industry has two significant problems:

1. Most doctors don't want to do abortions. Roughly 3/4 of ob-gyns will not perform abortions. The doctors that do perform abortions are aging out of practice.
2. Medical standard of care practice requirements like informed consent, at-minimum 24-hour waiting periods, hospital privileges, procedure rooms adequately sterilized and stocked with resuscitative equipment, trained anesthetists and other standards of medical care practice that the rest of us comprehend as essential to patient safety, the abortion industry disdains as "preventing access." The real complaint, however, is "cuts into our bottom line profit margin."

The COVID-19 epidemic has brought the primary, financial objective of the abortion industry into sharp focus: to abort as many women as possible in as little time as possible, with as little follow up as possible. Abortion clinics have flouted requirements to cancel elective surgeries, now claiming preposterously that instead of a "choice," elective abortion is essential medical care. Abortion clinics cancel pelvic exams, pap smears, other cancer screenings and STI screenings; they flout state laws by refusing to report pregnancies in cases of statutory rape, refusing to obtain state-mandated parental or legal guardian consent and ignoring COVID-19 abortion bans. But you can't have it both ways… essential medical care requires complying with medical standards of care, which the abortion industry refuses to do because money for abortion is their bottom line.

Read more.

National Right to Life reports in its May magazine that the term “surgical abortion” is being replaced with “procedural abortion.” Newspeak is an especially fierce battlefront of the culture war.

The NRLC story refers to a Rewire.News article, published last month, stating:

Rewire.News has updated its style guide to more accurately describe abortion care. Instead of referring to “medication and surgical” abortion to distinguish between abortions induced by pills and abortions performed as an in-clinic procedure, Rewire.News will use “medication and procedural” abortion.

The article explains that for pregnancies in the first trimester (up to 12 weeks) the procedure is a five to 10 minute process “involving gentle suction to remove the products of conception,” and it does not typically require cutting or suturing of any kind. To see an abortion of a 12-week old pre-born baby, see Dr. Bernard Nathanson’s video, The Silent Scream. There are surgical aspects.

Numerous metal instruments are inserted into the woman to achieve the abortion. Tissue must be cut— the amniotic sac in which the baby lives has to be torn open so that the suction tube can vacuum out his or her body parts (— at 12 weeks we know whether it’s a boy or girl). A polyp forceps must be inserted to crush the head before the skull bones and brains can be sucked out. So, by definition, even early stage abortion is surgery. (See the AMA definition of surgery.)

The article quotes healthcare providers who are irked when they are accused of using “a whole bunch of critical medical supplies and take PPE [personal protective equipment] away from the hospital” during the pandemic.

After all, they say, a first-trimester abortion only requires “2 pairs of gloves (1 for the ultrasound and 1 for the procedure) and a reusable face shield. A gown and mask are not usually required… If a person is forced to carry their pregnancy to term, their cesarean section would require significantly more PPE…” (We have inserted pictures of face shields in case readers may be wondering how they differ from masks.)

Now you know. Clinic personnel will not be wearing face masks for surgical abortions. We wonder— Do they require the patients do so?

Sincere thanks to the sidewalk counselors who have consistently stood nearby the women entering the EMW clinic despite the pandemic. A wonderful description of what is going on there, written by Ed Harpring, the Pro-Life Coordinator for the Archdiocese of Louisville, can be read on Facebook.